d him to the deep.

For fully a week after that a steady breeze blew from the east, and as
my course lay west and by north, I made rapid progress towards my
destination. I could not take an observation, which I very much
regretted, as the captain's quadrant was in the cabin; but from the day
of setting sail from the island of the savages I had kept a dead
reckoning, and as I knew pretty well now how much leeway the schooner
made, I hoped to hit the Coral Island without much difficulty. In this
I was the more confident that I knew its position on the chart--which, I
understood, was a very good one--and so had its correct bearings by
compass.

As the weather seemed now quite settled and fine, and as I had got into
the trade-winds, I set about preparations for hoisting the topsails.
This was a most arduous task, and my first attempts were complete
failures, owing, in a great degree, to my reprehensible ignorance of
mechanical forces. The first error I made was in applying my apparatus
of blocks and pulleys to a rope which was too weak, so that the very
first heave I made broke it in two, and sent me staggering against the
after-hatch, over which I tripped, and striking against the main-boom,
tumbled down the companion-ladder into the cabin. I was much bruised
and somewhat stunned by this untoward accident. However, I considered
it fortunate that I was not killed. In my next attempt I made sure of
not coming by a similar accident, so I unreeved the tackling and fitted
up larger blocks and ropes. But although the principle on which I acted
was quiet correct, the machinery was now so massive and heavy that the
mere friction and stiffness of the thick cordage prevented me from
moving it at all. Afterwards, however, I came to proportion things more
correctly; but I could not avoid reflecting at the time how much better
it would have been had I learned all this from observation and study,
instead of waiting till I was forced to acquire it through the painful
and tedious lessons of experience.

After the tackling was prepared and in good working order, it took me
the greater part of a day to hoist the main topsail. As I could not
steer and work at this at the same time, I lashed the helm in such a
position that, with a little watching now and then, it kept the schooner
in her proper course. By this means I was enabled, also, to go about
the deck and down below for things that I wanted as occasion required;
also to co